Signaling system



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4, 1942. W.IA.'DERR ET AL 2,292,061

SIGNALING SYSTEM Filed Feb. 29, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 /74 /76 /7/l we [Vi/lard /7, Barr and v eBnnera De C(0 6.

WITNESSES: INVENTORS Patented Aug. 4, 1942 SIGNALING SYSTEM Willard A. Don and Gennero De Croce, Wilkinsburg, Pa., assignors to Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application February 29, 1940, Serial No. 321,519

3 Claims.

Our invention relates, generally, to signaling systems, and, more particularly, to systems for indicating at one station the position of a movable device disposed at a remote station.

In signaling or supervisory systems such as are employed to supervise the position of remotely disposed movable devices or apparatus units, such as circuit breakers, fluid valves, substation doors or the like, it is common practice to give indications of the position of the device determined by Whether or not the device is in one particular position. Thus, using a circuit breaker as an example, when the breaker is in full open position, or a predetermined fraction of open position, an indication will be given that the breaker is in open position; if the breaker is not in the predetermined degree of open position, an indication will be given that it is in closed position. It will be apparent that such a system will give a positive accurate indication only when the breaker is in the predetermined degree of open position; the other indication is not a positive indication that the breaker is in closed position, but only that it is not in the predetermined open position. Any intermediate breaker position, such as the breaker may occupy when it becomes jammed in its operation, will cause a closed indication to be given.

In a like manner, when such open or closed indications depend upon the closed or open position of an auxiliary circuit control device actuated by the breaker, or other movable device, a false closed indication will be given in the event that the auxiliary circuit should become open circuited for any reason. Similarly, a false indication may be given when any movable element having two extremes of movement to be supervised fails to move to either of the extremes, where the indication of one extreme position depends upon a closed circuit condition and the indication of the other extreme position depends upon an open circuit condition.

An example of a signaling system which may give a false indication under the circumstances and conditions discussed hereinabove is the system of the United States patent to H. P. Boswau, No. 2,091,301, issued August 31, 1937. In this patented system, as will be apparent from the detailed description in the patent specification, an auxiliary switch 32! is controlled by a circuit breaker whose position is to be supervised, the switch 32! closing an energizing circuit for a supervising relay 3M only when the circuit breaker which is being supervised is in full or predetermined open position. When energized, i,.

the supervisory relay 3 i =1 will cause the indicating lamp I23 at the dispatchers station to be energized, and when the relay 314 is deenergized, the indicating lamp H9 will be energized to indicate closed position of the breaker. If the breaker which operates the auxiliary switch 32! should fail to close after moving from the open position sufiiciently to open the auxiliary switch 321 if the breaker should open insufiiciently to close the auxiliary switch 32 l, or should the energizing circuit for the relay 3M become so disabled for any reason as to prevent actuation of the relay 3M, a false closed indication may be given at the control station or dispatchers ofiice.

An object of our invention, therefore, is to provide a signaling system which shall function to give a positive indication at a control or dispatchers station of the position of a movable device at a remote station or substation.

Another object of the invention is to provide a remote signaling system which shall function to selectively indicate at a control or dispatchers station whether an element at a remote station which is movable between two predetermined positions is in one of the predetermined positions or an intermediate position.

A further object of the invention is to provide a remote electrical signaling system which shall function to selectively indicate two positions of a movable device at a remote station, and to indicate a condition caused by a fault in the operation of the device or certain fauls in the signaling circuits.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figures 1 and 2 are diagrammatic representations of control station or dispatcher station apparatus and substation apparatus, respectively, which drawings, when joined together, comprise a remote signaling system embodying the princi pal features of our invention.

In practicing the invention we utilize the principles and apparatus of any known remote suppervisory signaling system that functions to select and operate apparatus at a control station in accordance with conditions at a remote station which it is desired to supervise. In order to clearly set forth the invention it will be described herein as relating to and utilizing the principles and apparatus of the aforementioned Patent No. 2,091,301, certain modifications of and additions to the patented system being made to provide the functioning necessary for carrying out the objects of the invention.

The system of Patent No. 2,091,301, insofar as it relates to supervision of remotely disposed apparatus, comprises, generally, an auxiliary switch 32I operated by the apparatus which is supervised and connected to control the energization of a supervising relay 3M. The operation of supervising relay 3M in either pulling up or releasing, releases a starting relay 3I3 which, in turn, causes the coding, selecting, and control apparatus at the substation and the control station or dispatohers station to actuate a corresponding point selecting relay I34 at the control station. The actuation of the point selecting relay I34 and associated apparatuts at the control and remote stations causes the actuation of a code control operating relay 310 at the substation, which in turn causes indicating codes determined by the position of the supervising relay 3M to be transmitted by the substation apparatus, of which selecting relays 386, 30'! and 368 are a part, to the control station apparatus, of which selecting re lays MI, I42 and I43 are a part. The selective actuation of the substation apparatus causes the selective energization or deenergization of the signal control relay I30 which selectively controls the indication signals I I9 and I23. The functioning of the apparatus described only generally herein is described in detail in the Patent No. 2,091,301, and reference is made thereto for a complete detailed description of the functioning of the system.

In order to simplify the description of our invention, the elements of apparatus and circuit 1 conductors which are identicalwith those of the Patent No. 2,091,301 are designated by identical reference characters and are disposed similarly with respect to each other, the similar elements of apparatus, such as supervising relay 3M, are given similar reference characters, modified elements of apparatus and new elements of apparatus are designated by reference characters not found in the Patent No. 2,091,301, and certain common coding, selecting, and control apparatus is shown boxed in the drawings.

In practicing the invention a modified auxiliary switch 500 controls a modified supervising relay 3M which causes the selection of the corresponding point at the control station, and, .in conjunction with the code control operating relay 3H] and indicating code control relays 502 and 504, selects one of three indication selection codes to be transmitted to the control station by the coding, selecting, and control apparatus at the substation which includes the selecting relays 306, 301 and 308.

At the control station, the selecting and control apparatus which includes the selecting relays I iI, I42 and I43, operates in response to the indication selection codes received from the sub station to selectively operate the indication control relays 506, 503 and 5), which, in turn, selectively control the signal control relays 5I2 and 554 to actuate the signal lamps I I9 and I23.

Thus separate different codes are sent from the substation in accordance with the extreme or intermediate positions of the auxiliary switch 500 and the signal lamps H9 and I23 are selectively energized or both deenergized at the control station.

Considering the system more in detail, the auxiliary switch 500 may be connected to be operated by any movable member or device Whose position it is desired to supervise so that its contact element 32I will be in closed circuit position in one extreme position of the movable member. Its contact element 5H5 will be in closed circuit position in the other extreme position of the movable member, and both contact element 32I and contact element 5I6 will be in open circuit position when the movable member is in an intermediate position. The supervising relay 3M comprises a pair of opposed windings connected in series circuit relation to a source of potential, as indicated. A common conductor 5I8 extends from the terminals between the two windings of the relay 3M to the fixed contact elements of the auxiliary switch 500. A circuit is provided whereby the contact element 32I, when in closed circuit position, will connect the positive terminal of a source of direct current power to the conductor 5I8. When the contact element 533 is in closed circuit position, it will connect the negative terminal of a source of direct current power to the conductor 5I8. From this circuit arrangement, it will be seen that the upper coil of the supervising relay 3M will be energized and the relay actuated when the contact element 321 of the auxiliary switch 530 is in closed circuit position, that the lower winding of the supervising relay 354 will be energized and the relay actuated when the contact element 5I6 is in closed circuit position, and that both of the windings in the supervising relay 3M will be energized and the relay released when both contact elements 32! and 5H3 are in open circuit position or when an open circuit occurs on the conductor 5E8 or the conductors connecting the contact elements 32I and 5I6 to their respective terminals of the source of direct current power when these contact elements are in closed circuit position.

The actuation of the supervising relay M4 or its release and reac'cuation by the movement of the auxiliary switch 500 will release a holding circuit for the starting relay 3% and cause the armature 350 of the relay 3I3 to engage its back contact element which, in turn, will cause the substation coding, selecting, and control apparatus to send a supervisory code from the substation over the conductors 2I9 and 223 to cause the control station coding, selecting, and control apparatus to actuate the supervisory relay I32 and the point selecting relay ISM at the control station. The actuation of the point selecting relay I34 at the control station will cause the control station coding, selecting, and control apparatus to send a checking code over the line conductors 2!!! and 223 to the substation whose coding, selecting, and control apparatus will respond to the checking code to energize the code control operating relay 3E0. The operation of the system to transmit and receive the supervisory and checking code, as mentioned hereinbefore, is described in detail in the above-indicated Patent No. 2,091,301, and reference is made to that patent for the complete explanation of the operation of the apparatus to perform these functions.

Assuming that the upper winding of the supervising relay 3M has been energized by the application of a positive potential to the relay by the movement of the contact element 32I to closed circuit position, this positive potential will then be applied to a conductor 520 and through the contact elements 522 and 524 of the code control operating relay 3H], which are now in closed circuit position, to one terminal of the indicating code control relays 532 and 504. Since one terminal of the indicating code control relay 502 is connected to a positive terminal of a source of power, its winding will not be energized, but since one terminal of the relay 504 is connected to the negative terminal of the source of direct current power, its winding will be energized, and the relay will be actuated.

By the actuation of the relay 504 a positive potential will be applied to a conductor 526, which is connected to a fixed contact element of the selecting relay 306 of the point No. 3, through a circuit which extends from a positive terminal of the source of direct current power through the armature 346 of the code control operating relay 3I0, which has been actuated as hereinbefore described, the armature 345 of the starting relay 3I3, which has been released as hereinbefore described, a conductor 523, the armature 530 of the actuated indicating code control relay 504, the conductor 532, and the armature 534 of the indicating code control relay 502 to the conductor 526. The application of positive potential to the conductor 526 will cause an indicating code to be transmitted by the substation coding, selecting, and control apparatus over the line conductors 259 and 223 to the control station where the control station coding, selecting, and control apparatus will cause the selecting relay I4I, which is associated with the corresponding point No. 3 at the control station to .be actuated. Reference is made to the Patent No. 2,091,301 for a full explanation of the operation of the substation and control apparatus to perform these coding and selecting functions.

The actuation of the selecting relay I4! at the I control station will cause relay 506 to be energized in a circuit which extends from the positive terminal of the source of potential at the control station through the armature I'II of the point supervisory relay I32, which has been actuated by the original supervising coding signal, as hereinbefore described, through the conductor 535, the armature I80 of the selecting relay H, the conductor 538, and the winding of the relay 506 to the negative terminal of the source of potential. The actuation of the indication control relay 506 will cause the signaling control relay 5I4 to be energized in a circuit which extends from the positive terminal of the source of power at the control station through a conductor 542 and armature 544 of the point selecting relay I34, which has been energized by the original supervisory code, as here inbefore described, and conductor 546 through the winding of the signal control relay M4 to the negative terminal of the source of potential.

When the signal control relay 5| 4 is actuated, it will cause the signal lamp I23 to be energized in a circuit which extends from the positive terminal of the source of potential through the armature 548, conductor 550, and the signal lamp I23 to the conductor 552, which is connected to the negative terminal of the source of potential, as indicated. The actuation of the signal control relay 5i4 will cause its armature 554 to close a holding circuit for the relay which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential through a back contact armature 556 of the signal control relay 5I2, armature 554, a current limiting resistor 558, and the winding of the signal control relay 5I4 to a positive terminal of the source of potential. Thus, the movement of the movable member which controls the auxiliary switch 500 at the substation, such as the movement of a circuit breaker to the indication control open circuit position or the opening of a substation door, will cause the contact element 32I of the auxiliary switch 500 to move to closed circuit position in response to which the system will select and actuate a signal device, such as lamp I23 at the control station, to indicate the position of the movable member, and this indication will be held by the continued actuation of the signal control relay 5I4 through is holding circuit.

After the energization of the signal device I23 at the control station, a restoring code impulse is sent from the control station to the substation to restore the apparatus selectively ener gized by the movement of the contact element 32I of the auxiliary switch 500 to closed circuit position, to normal condition, thus releasing the code control operating relay 3I0, reenergizing the starting relay 3I3, and maintaining it energized over its holding circuit and releasing the indicating code control relay c. At the same time the supervisory relay I32, the point selecting relay I34, the signal control relay 5| 4, the indication control relay 50", and the selecting relay I4I are returned to normal deenergized position.

If now the auxiliary switch 500 is actuated by the movement of its controlling member to the other extreme position, its contact element 5I6 will be actuated to closed circuit position; the relay 354 will be released and actuated by the energization of its lower windings; and the movement of the armature 348 of the supervisory relay 3I4' between its back and its front contact elements will release the starting relay 3I3 to initiate a supervising code to operate the supervisory relay I32 at the control station and to select and operate the point selecting relay I34 at the control station, as explained hereinbefore. Also, as previously explained, actuation of the point selecting relay I34 by the supervising code will cause a checking code to be sent from the control station to the substation actuating the code control operatin relay 3H]. The operation of the code control operating relay 3| 0 will close its contact elements 522 and 524 to apply negative potential from the negative terminal of the source of potential at the substation through the contact element 5I5, conductors '5i8 and 520, and the contact elements 522 and 524 to the windings of the indicating code control relays 502 and 504-. The indicating code control relay 504 will remain deenergized since it already has a negative potential applied to its winding, and the indicating code control relay 502 will be energized since it already has a positive potential applied to its winding. The actuation of the indicating code control relay 502 will cause a positive potential to be applied to a conductor associated with the armature 342 of the selecting relay 303 of point No. 5 in a circuit which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential through the armature 346 of the code control operating relay 3I0, the armature 345 of the starting relay 3I3, the conductor 528, the armature '562 of the indicating code control relay 504, conductor 554, and armature 556 of the indicating code control relay 502 to the conductor 550.

The actuation of the code control operating relay 3I0 and the application of positive potential to the armature 342 of the selecting relay 308 will cause the substation coding, selecting, and control apparatus to transmit a code over the line conductors H9 and 223 to the control station whose coding, selecting, and control apparatus will select and operate the corresponding selecting relay I43 associated with point No. 5. The operation of the selecting relay I43 will energize the indication control relay 5I9 through a circuit which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential at the control station, armature i1I of the supervisory relay I32, conductor 535, armature I12 of the selecting relay I43, conductor 558, and the winding of the indication control relay 5H) to a negative terminal of the source of potential.

The actuation of the indication control relay 5H! will close an energizing circuit for the signal control relay 5%2 which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential through the armature 515 of the indicating control relay 595, a conductor 512, the armature 514 of the indicating control relay 5I9, a conductor 516, the armature I19 of the point selecting relay I34, a conductor 518, and the winding of the signal control relay 512 to a negative terminal of the source of potential. This actuation of the signal control relay 5I2 will close an energizing circuit for the signal lamp II9 which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential through the armature 599 of the signal control relay 5i'2, the conductor 582, and the indicating lamp II9 to the conductor 552 which is connected to a negative terminal of the source of potential, as indicated. The actuation of the signal control relay '5I2 will move its armature 556 from back contact to front contact position, thus breaking the holding circuit of the signal control relay 554 which depended upon the back 1 contact position of the armature 555 and closing a holding circuit for the signal control relay 5I2, which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential through the armature 554 of the signal control relay 5I4, the armature 555 of the signal control relay 5I2, a current limiting resistor 584, and the winding of the signal control relay 5I2 to a negative terminal of the source of potential. The operation of the selected apparatus at the control station will cause the operated relays to be returned to normal at the control station and the substation, while maintaining the energization of the signal lamp H9 to indicate the position of the movable member at the substation.

If now the movable member which controls the movement of the auxiliary switch 509 should move from its extreme position sufficiently to cause the contact element 5I5 to move to open circuit position, but not sufficiently to move the contact element 321 to closed circuit position, or should an open circuit occur in the conductor 5I8, or should an open circuit occur in the conductors between the terminals of the source of potential and their associated contact elements MI and 5I6 while one of these elements is in closed circuit position, both of the windings of the supervising relay 3E4 will be energized. Since these windings are in opposed relation, the relay will be released, permitting the armature 348 to be moved from its front contact to its back contact which deenergizes the starting relay 3I3 for a short time. This interval of deenergization of the starting relay 3I3 will permit it to break its holding circuit and remain deenergized to initiate, as hereinbefore described, the sending by the substation coding, selecting, and control apparatus of a supervisory code over the line wires 2I9 and 223 to the control station where the control station coding, selecting, and

control apparatus will energize the supervisory relay I32 and the point selecting relay I34. The next sequence in the operation, as hereinbefore described, will be the sending from the control station of the checking code which will energize the code control operating relay 3I9. With the code control operating relay 3H] energized and with no potential applied to the conductor 529 through the auxiliary switch 555, both of the indicating code control relays 592 and 594 will be energized by a circuit which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential at the substation, the winding of the indicating code control relay 552, armature 522 of the code control operating relay 5H], conductor 5%, armature 524 of the code control operating relay 3m, and the winding of the indicating code control relay 594 to the negative terminal of the source of potential. The actuation of both of the indicating code control relays 592 and 594 will apply a positive potential to a conductor 538 which is associated with an armature 599 of the selecting relay 391 associated with point No. 4 through a circuit which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential through the armature 346 of the code control operating relay 3H1, the armature 345 of the starting relay 3l3, conductor 523, the armature 539 of the indicating code control relay 504, the conductor 532, and armature 592 of the indicating code control relay 592 to the conductor 588.

The actuation of the code control operating relay 3H! and the application of positive potential to the conductor 538 will cause the substation coding, selecting, and control apparatus to transmit the signaling code normally associated with the No. 4 point over the line conductors 2I9 and 223 to the control station where its coding, selecting, and control apparatus will energize the selecting relay I42 of the associated point No. 4 at the control station. The actuation of the selecting relay I42 will cause the energization of the indication control relay 598 in a circuit which extends from a positive terminal of the source of potential through the armature I1I of the supervisory relay I32, conductor 535, armature 594 of the selecting relay I42, conductor 595, and the winding of the indication control relay 598 to a negative terminal of the source of potential. The actuation of the indication control relay 558 will close a shunting circuit for the energized signal control relay 5I2 extending from negative potential through an armature 599 of the relay 598, the conductor 609, the armature 598, a conductor 599, the conductor 516, the armature I15 of the relay I34, and the conductor 518 to the positive terminal of the relay 5I2. Should the signal control relay 5I4 be energized when the indication control relay 598 is energized, the relay 595 will close a shunting circuit for the signal control relay 5I4 extending from negative potential through the armature 599, the conductor 559, the armature 692, the conductors 542 and 554, the armature 544 and the conductor 545 to the positive terminal of the relay 5I4. With the armatures 548 and 589 of the signal control relays 524 and 5I2, respectively, released, the energizing circuits for the signals I23 and IE9 will be opened, and this deenergization of both of the signals H9 and I23 at the control station will be the indication that the movable member at the substation has failed to complete the entire movement from the one extreme position to the other, or that the control circuits associated with the auxiliary switch are in open circuit position, or that the auxiliary switch 5539 has failed to operate properly.

Upon the restoration of the relays at the control station and substation to normal, the system will again be set up to give the proper indication of the position of the apparatus when it is returned to one of its extreme positions or when the faulty operation or other condition at any substation which has caused the deenergization of both of the signal lamps I23 and H9 at the control station has been corrected.

It is to be understood that the description of the operation of the system in conjunction with the system of the Patent No. 2,091,301 has been given in order to facilitate the description and to more clearly point out the elements and functioning of the system in which the invention lies, and that the system may be made to function equally as well with other supervisory control systems in which coded selection of the operation of apparatus at the control stations and the substations is employed. Apparatus indicated and having reference characters applied thereto in the drawings which have not been referred to in this detailed description are included in the drawings to indicate the cooperative relationship of the improved system with the system of the Patent No. 2,091,3il1v Thus it will be seen that we have provided a remote electric signaling system which shall function to selectively indicate two extreme positions of a movable device at a remote station and to indicate a condition which may be caused by either certain faults in the signaling circuits or a fault in the operation of the device and which shall be simple and efiicient in operation and inexpensive to manufacture, install, maintain and operate.

In compliance with the requirements of the patent statutes we have shown and described herein the preferred embodiment of our invention. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise construction shown and described herein but is capable of modification by one skilled in the art, the embodiment shown herein being merely illustrative of the principles of our invention.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a signaling system, signaling mean at one station, a pair of separate relays at another station, means connecting one terminal of each of the relay windings to a common conductor, means connecting the other terminals of the relay windings to opposite terminals of a source of direct current power to thereby actuate both of said relays when no circuit is connected to the common conductor, a member at said other station movable between two extreme positions, circuit means responsive to the position of said movable member for selectively connecting the said common conductor to the opposite terminals of the said source of direct current power in accordance with the extreme positions occupied by the movable member, and means for selectively controlling said Signaling means in accordance with the actuation of one, the other, or both of said relays, whereby the signaling means Cir will be controlled in accordance with the extreme positions and an intermediate position of the movable member.

2. In a signaling system for selecting three circuit for energization in accordance with the two extreme positions and an intermediate position of a member movable between two extreme positions through an intermediate position, a pair of separate relays, circuit means whereby the said three circuits are selectively connected for energization in accordance with the actuation of one of the relays, the other relay, or both of the relays, a common conductor connected to said relays, circuit mean whereby the application of a potential of one polarity to said common conductor will actuate one of said relays, the application of a potential of the opposite polarity will actuate the other relay, and the removal of potential from said common conductor will cause the actuation of both of said relays, means for connecting said common conductor to a potential of one polarity when the movable member is in one extreme position, means for connecting said common conductor to a potential of opposite polarity when the movable member is in the other extreme position, and means for disconnecting potential from said common conductor when said movable member is in intermediate position.

3. In a, signaling system, a plurality of signaling devices at one station, three circuits at another station, means responsive to the selective energization of said three circuits for selectively actuating said signal devices, and means for selecting said three circuits for energization in accordance with the two extreme positions and an intermediate position of a member movable between two extreme positions through an intermediate position, comprising a pair of separate relays, circuit means whereby the said three circuits are selectively connected for energization in accordance with the actuation of one of the relays, the other relay, or both of the relays, a common conductor connected to said relays, circuit means whereby the application of a potential of one polarity to said common conductor will actuate one of said relays, the application of a potential of the opposite polarity will actuate the other relay, and the removal of potential from said common conductor will cause the actuation of both of said relays, means for connecting said common conductor to a potential of one polarity when the movable member is in one extreme position, means for connecting said common conductor to a potential of opposite polarity when the movable member is in the other extreme position, and means for disconnecting potential from said common conductor when aid movable member is in intermediate position whereby selective signals will indicate the extreme positions of the movable member and an indication will be given when the movable member is in intermediate position or an open circuit exists on said common conductor at said other station.

WILLARD A. DERR. GENNERO DE CROCE. 

